


i'm only a human being (and human beings break)

by Riripou



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Buckle up, Chaptered, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Don't Ask Questions, Drugs, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Here we go, Hospitals, Hypothermia, I also love Pidge, I am in love with Matt Holt, I haven't updated this in absolutely ages, I'm Sorry, I'm currently writing a new chapter, It's changed a few plans for my fic so I'm gonna add some tags, Kidnapping, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, New tags with each chapter, Panic Attacks, Pidge | Katie Holt Angst, Polyamory, Poor Keith, Rape, Season 4 made me weep, Sendek is a dick, Shiro is a Good Bro, Shiro is a famous fashion designer, Texting, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Trans Keith (Voltron), its gonna be a bumpy ride, lance is pan, that's all for now, this is messed up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-03 18:17:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10254227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riripou/pseuds/Riripou
Summary: It seemed like a good idea at the time. Shiro could go on his date with Allura and Keith could look for someone at the club.Perfect, right?Except the night ended up with Keith sobbing into Shiro's chest in a hospital bed, freezing cold and broken.Except Lance was left curiously eyeing Keith's empty seat in his maths class for 2 months.Except when Keith came back he wasn't really the same.And Keith drags through.But Lance, Hunk and Pidge are along for the journey, this time.Beacuse they want to help.Because they realised something was wrong.Because they realised something shouldn't have needed to be wrong in the first place.(Because maybe Lance realised he'd never really hated Keith in the first place)Or maybe because they were decent human beings.Or maybe even great ones.~Or: The one where Keith is raped, Lance is very upset, Hunk is a sweetheart, Pidge is amazing, Shiro is a great bro and they try to fix the broken pieces that come with part of being human~





	1. decent humans

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is gonna be a ride. This fic will cover sensitive issues so please check the tags before you read. There are some messed up people in the world, and this fic is to show how horrible they are, and in to no way romanticise anything. Yes, there will be romance. Yes, it will take a while to happen. Keith has gone through a lot and it will take him a while to grow to trust again, even at a subconscious level. This will be multi chaptered, and I don't plan on abandoning it. Updates won't be very close together; bear in mind I have a life outside of AO3 too, but I will try to update as regularly as I can.   
> Anyway, enough from me:  
> Let's begin.

“F-Fuck,” Keith swore, knife between his teeth as he tightened the bandage around his leg. “Shit,” He swore again, voice trembling, the pain growing worse, not helped by his fuzzy head and utter panic over what had occurred over the last few hours. He’d call Shiro, but he was on a date with Allura and had most likely put his phone on silent. 

He managed to cut the edge of the bandage off with the knife, twisting his head awkwardly. He tied it off, and sighed with relief as he grabbed the knife from his mouth with his hand. 

His blood was already beginning to stain the white fabric.

He sheathed the newfound knife in a loop on his belt. He was not letting go of this now he had it. It was a fancy knife, and it fit in his hands like it was made for him.

He shivered as he looked around. The alleyway was dark and cold and better yet, he had no idea where he was. He gripped the phone in his pocket, his only source of comfort. Maybe he should at least try and call Shiro?  
He stared at the phone for a few minutes, before slowly dialling Shiro’s number. It rang until it reached Shiro’s voicemail.

Hi. This is Takashi Shirogane. I’m not available right now, so please call later or leave a message for me. Thanks! I’ll get back to you as soon as-

He hung up.

Shit. Where even was he? He couldn’t remember much about where he had been running. His head was throbbing and his vision was blurry. The adrenaline rush his escape and need to tend to his wound had caused had faded, his memories slowly trickling back, not enough for the whole picture yet, so he was left scared and shivering. 

Shit. Shit. Shit.

He glanced at his phone’s percentage.

14%.

/Shit./

He shot a quick text to Shiro, hoping that when he finished his date, he’d come and find him because shit he was cold and scared and lost and couldn’t even focus properly.

He turned his data with shaking hands on and switched to Google Maps. If he could just find out where he was he could walk h-home and just forget about everything-

He glared at the loading sign and the measly one bar of signal with all his might, as if it would speed it up because of it. 

It didn’t.

But after a few minutes of shivering in waiting silence, it finally loaded. He blinked rapidly a few times, before focusing. He didn’t recognise where he was, so he typed his home address in the search bar, and then hit start route. 

2 hours and 47 minutes. In a car. 

“Shit!” he shook, tears brimming. Now he was scared. He knew it was useless to try and get back, especially with his phone now at 9%.

He quickly sent his location to Shiro, texting him in a rapid panic. He only hoped he wouldn’t be too long. He would have to wait. 

He switched to Crossy Road to try and distract himself. It hardly worked, but it was the best he could do in the situation.

Until his phone died minutes later, leaving him in pitch darkness, in a thin T-Shirt and jeans, trying (and failing) to stop himself from crying, silent tears joining the dried ones from earlier.

It was so cold, and his head was so fuzzy… Maybe he should just sleep until Shiro came.

Yeah. He could forget about it that way. Shiro would make everything better. 

His phone slipped from his hand as he fell into slumber, leaving the cold behind, slipping into the warmth of the welcoming darkness.

Just until Shiro came…  
\--------  
Shiro found himself blushing at Allura again. Her smile was so pretty. And her hand was warm.

“Here we are,” He smiled, gesturing to her house. She smiled gratefully up at him.

“Thanks, Shiro. Let’s do this again soon, yeah?” She asked sweetly, a light blush colouring her dark cheeks.  
He nodded almost instantly. “Yeah. Definitely.” 

She waved at him before walking inside, leaving Shiro with a content expression and red face, and not just from the cold.

Humming happily he began to make his way back home. He grabbed his phone from his pocket, watching as it loaded after being powered off. 

He yawned as he saw the familiar apple, and then felt a sharp spike of panic at the screen.

(7) missed calls from Keith  
(43) messages from Keith

He quickly typed in his password and went straight to his messages. He scrolled up and read them from the top. The first one was from earlier in the night, closer to when Keith had first gone to the club. He’d seen them arrive, but had been too preoccupied getting ready for his date at the time to read them.

[8:37] Why did you make me go here again?  
[8:39] There’s literally nothing to do here.  
[8:41] I hope you’re having fun on your date  
[8:43] You do realise I’m probably not going to end up with someone I met at a gay bar  
[8:51] I’m so bored you shit  
[8:55] Fuck it, I’m having a drink  
[8:55] It’s your fault if I can’t remember this tomorrow

The next few texts made him chuckle, his demeanour relaxing. The vast amounts of texts were most likely Keith’s drunken ramblings. Him and his conspiracies. 

[10:00] Do you think if the government DID fake the moon landing  
[10:01] which they D ID  
[10:02] why did they like? Think everyone would believe it??  
[10:02] aLSO what the heck?? Why did they do it in the first place? What’s the point!  
[10:04] Which is why there is definitely some kind of government cover up to do with alien life  
[10:04] Or something  
[10:09] I’m gonna find out  
[10:09] and then everyone will know the truth  
[10:37] its funny  
[10:37] Theres like,, people flirting with me  
[10:38] have you been flirted with??  
[10:38] yes u have by allura  
[10:38] he called me cute!!  
[10:39] am I cute?  
[10:39] I like him  
[10:42] he’s flirting with someone else now  
[10:43] it doesn’t matter  
[10:43] I wasn’t even gonna be with anyone anyway  
[10:44] I told you  
[10:51] he camee back  
[10:51] he saii d that it wass his brother he wa s joike flirting  
[10:52] his brothers nicee and his friends r tooo  
[10:53] he bough t me a drino k  
[10:54} it tasets funt ny  
[10:55] ur not spoosed to feel dizzy  
[10:58] I thikn he drugeed it  
[11:00] imgoing toiiizdfi

At the last few messages Shiro felt panic rush through him. Someone had drugged him? What the fuck?! He quickly read the last few messages, heart rate speeding up rapidly.

[1:01] SHiro fuck  
[1:01] please come and get me  
[1:02] its cold  
[1:03] i dont know where i am  
[1:03] its really cold

Shiro panicked for a second, wondering how in hell he was supposed to find Keith, but then read the next few messages, the first one having a location attached.

[1:09] shiro pleasecome and get me its cold and I’m scared  
[1:09] my leg hurts shiro please I don’t want to stay here please  
[1:10] my pjhones gonna die and its cold and dark and please come get me I don’t wanna stay hereany more

Shiro immediately felt horrible for asking him to go to the club, guilt and regret building up in his stomach. He reached his car and immediately put the address Keith had given him in the sat-nav, praying he wasn’t too far away.

2 hours and 47 minutes.

With a cry, Shiro immediately began to drive, praying Keith would be okay by the time he got there. God, he better be okay.  
\--------  
2 hours and 42 minutes later, Shiro dashed out of the car into the dark alleyway in front of him, 911 ready to be called at a moment’s notice.

And then he saw it.

Two unconscious bodies lay spread across the dirty cobbled floor, blood staining one of the men’s shirt red. He was clearly dead, but the other man, who was wearing a thick black coat was unwounded apart from a large bruise on his head. His chest was heaving, albeit shallowly.

But Keith’s body was the one that caught his attention. His leg was wrapped tightly in what Shiro recognised as Keith’s emergency bandages. The bandage was stained a deep red. 

Shiro felt the cold hit him at that point, and it was cold. He wrapped his arms around himself and felt a growing sense of horror as he realised Keith had been lying there for nearly 3 hours in a black /T-Shirt/. The tips of his fingers were a blue colour and he was visibly shivering.

He immediately ripped the coat from the fallen man and ran over to Keith, wrapping the fur around him, chocking on a sob. 

Keith’s head lolled forward, unconscious, as Shiro lifted him from the floor. He had bruises all the way across his face and neck, and his lips were blue.

But he was breathing, faintly, but he was breathing.  
“Keith!” He half-sobbed, half-shouted, trying to wake him.

There was no response. 

He debated calling 911, before quickly deciding to take Keith out of the alley and proximity to the men, not wanting Keith to get in trouble with the police for injuring the man.

He pushed the man further out of view, praying that the one who was alive would leave with the dead one, not go to the police. 

He doubted they would.

As soon as Keith was out of the cold alley, he rung 911.

"Hello, this is 911. What is your emergency? Do you need an ambulance, a fireman or the polic-"

“An ambulance!” Shiro chocked out, frantically rubbing Keith’s hands to give him the friction he needed to warm up.

"What is your emergency?"

The calm voice on the other end asked again.

“M-My brother! H-His leg is bleeding, I think it’s deep, and he’s so cold!” He informed, growing hysteria evident in his voice.

“He’s been out in the cold in barely anything for hours! He’s hardly breathing and he’s not waking up and-“

"Please try to calm down, sir. We’ll get to your brother as soon as we can. Where is your location? We’ll send you an ambulance."

Shiro took a few seconds to register the question. “I-I, oh /God/!"

"Sir, please tell us your location. We will be able to help him if you can please give us your location."

He stuttered out the address he had been travelling to for the past 3 hours, and practically zoned out until he could hear the sirens.

There was a blanket being draped around his shoulders and a warm hand leading him, dazed, into the ambulance with Keith inside, covered in various medical equipment. 

He blinked, and finally began to process what had just happened. The man beside him seemed to notice him breaking out of some kind of trance.

“Is he okay?” he asked, panicked. “Keith- is he okay?!”

The man nodded slowly, a kind and sympathetic smile on his face.

“He’s your brother, correct?” He questioned.

“Y-Yeah.”

“Your brother isn’t in the best condition. It’s good that you found him when you did- he’s been out in the cold for far too long, and any longer he’d most likely be dead.”  
Shiro chocked on a sob, feeling tears well up in his eyes at that information.

“Sir, he will most likely pull through. The wound on his leg is deep, and not good either, but we’re attending to it as best we can. He has quite severe hypothermia, but I’m sure he will be able to survive this. In fact, I’m pretty sure you just saved his life. He’s still shivering, which is a good sign, as he has enough body energy to expend on this, trying to keep him warm, and he’s still breathing; with a pulse, despite being unconscious, but with immediate medical attention, he will be doing better. You can see him soon, don’t worry.”

Shiro nodded shaking. Oh, god. 

Keith better be okay.

Or he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt, Or without Keith at all.

Oh, God.  
\---------------------  
Lance yawned and stretched, before glancing at the time on his phone.

Crap.

He got dressed in a panic, shoving his school books into a bag before bolting downstairs, still sleep-ridden and mildly disorientated.

He quickly glanced around the kitchen, were his mother was humming and buttering a slice of toast.

“Mamá!” He accused, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

His mother chuckled, before handing him the toast.

“Mi hijo, I tried, but your door is locked and you are a very deep sleeper. Now go to school before you’re late!” She explained, before shooing him away, smile on her lips.

He began to eat the toast, grateful his phone was fully charged, at least, and began to run in the direction of the school, knowing he’d most likely miss the bus, but trying anyway.

The Sin Tin™  
[Lance-a-lot] I just woke up  
[Lance-a-lot] hunk my main man my buddy  
[Lance-a-lot] have I missed the bus  
[Hunktacular] no  
[Lance-a-lot] thank the lord amen  
[Lance-a-lot] is it l8 again?  
[Hunktacular] yeah the bus drivers new  
[Hunktacular] he took a shitty route  
[Hunktacular] get here in like 5 mins and ull b fine  
[Lance-a-lot] good good ive never been more grateful for lousy ass bus drivers until this moment  
[pidge-on] im already at school u losers  
[Lance-a-lot] how?????  
[pidge-on] u underestimate my power  
[pidge-on] also hurry up im bored as fuck  
[Lance-a-lot] did u just swear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
[pidge-on] yes I did  
[pidge-on] do u have a problem  
[Lance-a-lot] yes I do u cannot swear ur too pure  
[pidge-on] excuse u I have 5 years’ worth of blackmail from hacking into ur laptop r u willing to try me  
[Hunktacular] lmao #rekd  
[Lance-a-lot] ,,, u scare me sometimes  
[pidge-on] good  
[pidge-on] *dabs*  
[Lance-a-lot] if u ever type that again i may have to kill you myself   
[pidge-on] uwu   
\-----------------  
Lance sank into his seat, mentally preparing himself for yet another lesson of torture, before noticing the seat beside him was empty.

That was unlike Keith, who was usually early, and in fact Lance can’t even remember a time Keith hadn’t arrived before him.

Whatever. He was glad the annoying classmate wasn’t there. He’d just have to enjoy it while it lasted.  
Keith didn’t show up.

When the teacher called his name, he seemed to be expecting an answer, and was also surprised when he did not receive one.

“Keith Kogane?” He called again, before having to move on to the next name, brow furrowed. 

The lesson felt…

Dull.

Dull without Keith’s irritating presence grating on his nerves. 

He pushed the revelation to the back of his mind. It didn’t mean anything at all. He was glad, if anything.

He kept glancing at the seat throughout the whole lesson.  
\---------  
“Keith’s not at school today,” He announced with finality at lunch, his way of greeting his friends, who were already talking between themselves.

Pidge raised an eyebrow. “…So? People take days off school sometimes.”

Lance shrugged, “I don’t know, he’s just never really off school.”

Hunk laughed. “I hadn’t even noticed. Your ‘rival’ is pretty important to you, hey?” He teased.

Pidge snorted into her drink, causing Lance to turn a bright red.

“N-No! I was just curious. He’s probably scared I’d beat him, that’s all!”

“Beat you at what?” Pidge inquired with a smirk, “Not kissing the other one of you first?”

“What the heck!” Lance spluttered as Pidge high-fived Hunk. “I hate him, not like him!”

“Whatever you say, dude,” Hunk smiled.

Lance grumbled at the pair, folding his arms.

“Yeah. I don’t like him. At all. I wouldn’t care if he never came back.”

“Mm hm?” Pidge chuckled, now scrolling through her phone absentmindedly.

“It doesn’t matter. He’ll be back by the end of the week anyway.”

He wasn’t.

And not the week after that.

Or after that.

Or after that.

In fact, it was 2 months before Keith returned back to school, when Lance had gone from curious to indifferent to annoyed to uncaring to worried and concerned, dragging his friends with him.

He wasn’t the same person when he came back, either.

Even if it took Lance a little while to work that one out.  
\----------  
When Shiro was able to visit Keith, he was just waking up, groaning but barely moving.

He blinked his eyes open and moaned, before jolting up suddenly, eyes wide and body shaking. Shiro placed a hand on Keith’s arm comfortingly, trying to calm his heart beating like a startled deer.

It took a while for Keith to speak.

“Shhh-iiiro?” He slurred, hands shaking and fumbling to try and reach Shiro’s shoulders. His breathing was shallow and harsh.

“Ye-yeah. It’s me, Keith. H-How’re you feeling?”

Keith’s body swayed, hands still shaking as he looked at Shiro through half-lidded eyes.

“Shirooo?” He said again, grip on Shiro’s shoulder tightening slightly.

“Uh-huh. That’s me. Shiro.”

Keith lunged forward and pulled Shiro into a hug. Shiro returned it gently, hoping the unexpected physical contact would calm him down.

Instead, he could hear Keith beginning to sob.

“I-I, g-god, Shiro! I-I’m, you-“

His attempt at speaking was drowned out by sobs that went through his whole body, shaking and sobbing in a way Shiro had never imagined, having seen Keith cry only a handful of times, and sob only once before.

None were as bad as this.

“H-He, th-they, Shiro!”

“Shh, shh. Keith, don’t push yourself, please, you’re okay now; you’re fine. You don’t have to tell me, okay? You’re fine, shh.”

“I- they-they, Shiro I didn’t want to! I didn’t want to! Sh-Shiro! I-” He let out a hiccupping sob and curled tighter into Shiro’s body, trembling with more rigour. 

Shiro felt his blood run cold as he began to piece together what happened that night.

“I-I’m a boy, right? Shiro? I-I’m a boy!” His voice became hysterical, nails digging into Shiro’s back, but Shiro barely noticed, clutching Keith tight as if to try and protect from what had already happened.

“Am I? Am I? Why couldn’t I be a-a proper boy? I’m still a boy though, right, Shiro? Shiro? S-Shiro?” His voice cracked.

“Of course you are,” Shiro almost snarled, tears of his own brimming in his eyes, cursing the two men he’d seen in the alley. He was glad at least one of them was dead.

Those fuckers. 

Those absolute s c u m.

“You’re more of a man than anyone else could ever hope to be. Keith, don’t even doubt that for a second. Do. Not.”

Keith didn’t reply for a while, only continued to sob into Shiro’s shirt, shaking like he would never stop and clinging to Shiro like he would never let go.

“I remember Shiro. I didn’t before because I was so cold but I r-remember now and I-I,” 

“Shh,” Shiro soothed, trying to hide the fact he was ready for murder with soft soothing whispers.

“I-I feel wrong. I can feel them on me! I want it to g-go away!” Keith chocked, and he could feel vomit rising in his throat.

Shiro gripped him tighter.

“They-they, god I feel so wrong! My leg hurts, Shiro. Why does my leg hurt? Why does my body hurt? I-It hurts there!”

At that point Shiro could hear the doctors approaching the room, and Keith began to panic more and more, vomit rising further up his throat as he couldn’t control his sobs.

Shiro protested almost violently as he was removed from Keith’s body by concerned doctors, but Keith was the one who took the loss of Shiro’s body contact worse, flailing widely and letting out wails as he cried for his brother.

Shiro felt sick.

Was this even real? What had Keith done to deserve what those assholes had done to him? Nothing. As he watched the doctors try to calm him down he felt his own sob join Keith’s.

Those absolute /s c u m./  
\-------------  
“You sure you want to go today?” Shiro asked him gently. 

No.

“Yeah,” Keith replied, smiling at his brother, though it came out as more of a grimace.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I know. I want to.”

“Okay. Okay. That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

Shiro enveloped him in a tight hug, as if he was afraid to watch Keith go. (Which he probably was).

“Take it easy, yeah? I know you can handle it, but just- be careful.”

“I will,” Keith mumbled into Shiro’s shoulder.

Shiro broke off the hug to smile at him proudly.

“I love you, Keith. I know you’ll do well today.”

“Yeah. Love you too.” He mumbled, cheeks slightly red. His brother could sometimes say embarrassing things, but Keith secretly loved it anyway.

“Make sure you eat well. Do well, and all the teachers know to take it easy too.”

“I’m not 5 years old, Shiro.”

Shiro chuckled fondly, before stepping back with a smile.

“I know, I know,” He said, hands up in surrender. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Yeah. Thank you. I’ll be fine. See you later.”

Shiro nodded as he began to leave the house, before remembering something and shouting after him, “Text me when you get to school!”

Keith shot a, “Yeah, yeah!” in an amused voice before shutting the door and heading of for school for the first time in 2 months.

He swallowed, trying to push his nervous apprehension down. He was not weak. He did not care about what had happened. It was in the past. It was back to normal now. He was fine. He was-

He blinked back tears as his mind wandered to talks to Shiro about that night and he quickly pushed them away in case he’d start remembering it again and-

He swallowed again, and focused intently on the task at hand. School. He could manage that at least. With hesitant legs he began to make his way forward.

\--------------  
[Keith]: I’m at school you worrywart  
[Shiro]: Good! I just want to make sure you’re okay  
[Keith]: I know  
[Keith]: Thanks  
[Keith]: I’ll text you later, I’ve got to get to class  
[Shiro]: Okay! Have a good day!  
[Keith]: Yeah. Bye Shiro  
[Shiro]: Bye!

Keith pocketed his phone and looked at the entrance to the school and swallowed. There were students milling about, laughing and chatting as usual, and normally he’d ignore them, and walk straight pass, but his only interactions over the past months had been with Shiro and the nurses and doctors in the hospital, so he felt anxious as he walked to the entrance.

No one paid him much attention as he got closer and closer but for him every step made his feet seem like lead, and every eye was burning into his head, ripping through his secrets and cruelly laughing at everything he’d done wrong.

As he stepped through the door, he couldn’t help feel like a large weight had been lifted from his chest and he let out a deep relived sigh. 

He focused in on the long corridor in front of him and saw another tedious journey, and what he had once seen as an insignificant walk before, now seemed to be one of the hardest paths he’d taken.

But he was determined to show Shiro he was okay. And maybe show himself, too.

He prepared himself by straightening up, and taking a deep breath through his nose and breathing out through his mouth.

He could do this.

He was okay.

\------------  
Lance yawned and stretched out in his seat. The worry over Keith’s disappearance had dulled over the weeks, but it was still there; like a scar. It’s always there but after a while you forget about it until you are reminded of its presence. 

Lance was reminded by the empty chair next to him, but he’d also grown used to it. He couldn’t help wondering, though. Where had Keith gone?

He glanced down at the page beneath him, covered in maths equations he couldn’t really grasp his mind around. 

He didn’t mind maths, in face, sometimes he liked it, but it took him a while to understand how to use or remember the formulas and calculator instructions. 

After he’d done that, it was rather simple.

He was too busy focusing on how to do all three steps of Iteration that he hadn’t noticed the teacher had arrived in the classroom and was begging to call names.

“Lance Sanchez?” the teacher questioned, looking up from the computer. Lance briefly noted they were a substitute.

“Oh-uh, yeah! Here!” He stuttered out, before looking straight back down at the paper, embarrassed he’d zoned out so badly. 

Right… type in whatever ‘x’ was into the calculator, press the equal sign so it recorded that as the most recent answer…

“Ethan Harrison?”

“Here, sir,”

Type in the formula with ‘Ans’ in the place of x and keep pressing ‘=’ until you reach the point the calculator keeps the same numbers after the decimal place…

“Lola Jones?”

“I’m here,”

Round it to the decimal place the question asks for and boom, your answer. It was classed as an A* subject, but he found it quite simple, in contrast to how hard he found subjects that were called even lower, maybe even at a B.

“Katie King?”

“Yup- right here, sir!”

Lance finally felt he understood how all three sections linked together, so sat up in his chair to look at the front where the teacher was sitting, just in time to catch the next name.

“Keith Kogane?”

Lance felt a flash of sadness and nostalgia wash through him to hear a teacher say Keith’s name. Their regular teachers had stopped calling him a few weeks in, and to hear someone say it after so long just felt weird. He braced himself for silence.

“Here sir,” Came instead.

Lance’s head whipped around to face the voice so fast he was surprised there was no whiplash. There was a collective sound of movement as most of the class did so too.

But there, in the usually empty seat, sat Keith Kogane, looking like his usual broody self in his red cropped jacked, arms folded, looking for all the world that he had not missed 2 whole months of school.

The teacher, unknowing of the effects that one response had caused, called out the next name.

“Daniel Lancaster?”

“…”

“Daniel?”

“Here, sir.”

Lance had forgotten how Iteration worked by the time he looked away from Keith.

And for once, he found, he didn’t particularly care.  
\-------------

“He’s back!” He hissed to Hunk and Pidge when he saw them next, at break.

Pidge seemed uninterested, focused intently on her phone screen, but let out a noncommittal hum to try and appease Lance.

Hunk, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow. “Who are we talking about again? And, hi, buddy, too.”

“Keith Kogane. Who has not come to school for 2 fucking months, just turned up in maths like he’s never left.”

At this Pidge looked up in interest, turning off her phone to listen to what Lance had to say. Hunk also seemed curious, gesturing with his hands for Lance to continue.

“I don’t know, Hunk. Literally, we had a sub today, so he didn’t know about Keith, and he calls Keith’s name and y’know, I’m just expecting silence like always, but he’s just like, ‘Here, sir’ in his usual emo voice and doesn’t offer an explanation of anything! In fact, he didn’t even say anything the whole lesson, even when I kept trying to grab his attention. Most of the time he at least tells me to go away.”

Hunk frowned at this, and Pidge seemed deep in thought.

“Ya think he just took 2 months off ‘cause he wanted too?” Hunk inquired.

Lance shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Maybe. Probably. Nothing’s different, he just hasn’t been here for a couple of months. Maybe he just didn’t want to go to school, I don’t know.”

Hunk hummed slightly. “Yeah. Wouldn’t he get into trouble?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Who knows, buddy.” Lance said helplessly.

Pidge spoke up with a, what Lance had dubbed, ‘thinking face’. 

“I don’t think that’s it.” She told the pair. 

“Well, what do you think happened?”

“I’m just as clueless as you guys, as much as I hate to admit it, but I don’t think Keith is the type to do that.”

Lance snorted, which caused Pidge to look at him in disapproval.

“How d’ya figure that one out, Pidge?” Hunk asked in curiosity.

“I’m good at body language. Trust me on that one.” She told him, confidence strong in her voice.

“I guess…” Lance mumbled, before perking up slightly.  
“Have either of you two got lessons with him today?”

They both looked at their timetables, before Hunk shook his head and Pidge nodded.

“I’ve got nothin’ today, Lance.” 

“I’ve got English Lit with him, period 4. I’ll have a look then.”

“Yeah. I have Bio and French with him today.”

“I forgot you did French,” Hunk admitted.

“I couldn’t exactly do Spanish. I’m fluent, mi amigo. German is hell to pronounce and hey, what’s left? French, mon ami,”

“German’s not that bad,” Pidge spoke up, a smirk sitting lightly on her lips, “Mein Freund,”

“A’a uo, don’t try and out-language me,” Hunk added, smirking alongside Pidge.

“Why would I ever try that, soy claramente mejor, mi amigo.”

“That is where you are wrong, ich bin derjenige, der besser ist, mein freund”

“Nope, ou te sili.” Hunk said with a smile, before adding a half-hearted, “A’a uo,” Afterwards.

The trio shared a glance before letting out a loud round of laughter, before the bell broke their light-hearted conversation.

Lance gave the pair a half-hearted salute before grabbing his things. “Wish me look, mis amigos.”

“Viel Gluck.” Pidge laughed after him, pocketing her phone.

“Manuia lava,” Hunk waved, ready to walk in the opposite direction already. Lance waved back before turning around and walking, with a sigh, to his next lesson.

Biology.

Great.

He persuaded himself it would be interesting. They were doing an experiment today, after all.

And, he could spy on Keith.

He hoped he could, for once, have some fun in a Biology lesson.  
\--------------  
This was Not Fun™. 

His Biology teacher hadn’t allowed the class to choose their own partners, and instead paired them herself. 

And, of course, he was with Keith. He had wanted to be curious from afar, not working with his rival who had better have a good reason for being off for 2 months because Lance wasn’t allowed, so neither should Keith.

“Pass me the knife,” Keith scowled, holding out his hand. 

“What? No! I want to cut the potato!”

Keith’s scowl somehow grew deeper. “No, I am. I’m better and I can cut them more evenly. It will be easier to work out the percentage increase at the end.”

“Since when are you better at cutting potatoes! I can cut them too!”

“Just pass me the knife!” Keith demanded, hand still outstretched.

“No!” Lance refused, moving the blunt knife away from Keith’s range.

Keith moved forward in annoyance, reaching out to grab for the handle. Lance mover it further away, smirking.  
“Give. It. To. Me.”

Lance responded only by sticking out his tongue like a child, not really caring what Keith thought. 

He moved it again in a swift movement, but this time when Keith shot out his hand to grab it, he hit the beaker sitting on the desk, causing it to topple and fall off onto the floor, and shattering into hundreds of pieces.

The pair froze and looked at the glass in almost disbelieving horror.

Lance recovered first, turning to Keith in anger. “Look what you’ve done!” He hissed.

Keith broke out of his stupor with an equal amount of anger.

“I did? You were the one who didn’t give me the knife!”

“You didn’t need the knife!”

“What has happened here?” A cold voice washed over the two boys as their Biology teacher, Dr. Bailey, stepped in front of them with a look of cold apathy, which somehow made her seem scarier. 

“I-,” Lance began before stuttering off in embarrassment, instead turning to glare silently at Keith, who was looking at the floor, fists clenched. 

“Sorry,” Keith mumbled in a way that made Lance’s glare falter. Was it really Keith who had just said that? The voice was submissive and quiet, very unlike what Lance had grown to associate with his self-acclaimed ‘rival’.  
Dr. Bailey’s face softened completely when she heard Keith’s response, scaring Lance more than her anger had.

“Don’t worry about it, Keith. Your brother told us what happened. I’m glad you decided to come in today, so don’t worry about this. I’ll let you off this once, and please take as much time as you need,” She said in a soft tone, patting him on the shoulder before calling over one of the lab technicians over to clean up the mess.

Lance’s brain had completely stopped working. Dr. Bailey acting kind? Brother? What had happened to Keith? Brother?

“You have a brother?” Was all Lance found himself splurting out in Keith’s direction.

Keith looked up at him with mild incredulity, eyebrow arched. 

“Yeah?” He responded, “You didn’t know?”

Lance huffed and folded his arms. “Well, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t know, idiot,” He hissed under his breath. He noticed Keith’s expression begin to change so hastily added,

“What’s his name?”

Keith was still angry but didn’t seem in a mood to fight so sighed and leant back against the wall.

“Shiro,” He answered.

“Shiro?!” Lance exclaimed, wide eyed, “Takashi Shirogane?”

“Um, yeah?” Keith answered, slightly bemused. “Do you know him?”

“What!? Dude, Shiro the fashion designer? He’s your brother?!”

“You know Shiro’s fashion designing? Huh. I’d never have pinned you down for a fashion kinda guy.”

Lance flushed at this. “Well I do! You have a problem?”

“No. My brother’s a fashion designer. Why would I have a problem?” Keith asked, sounding genuinely confused, biting his lip, eyebrows furrowed cutely.

Wait.

‘Cutely?’

He flushed even brighter. What?! Since when had he started thinking Keith as cute?

“Are you okay?” Keith asked in a quiet voice, look of concern replacing his confusion, and god, why had Lance never noticed how cute he looked until he’d been gone for 2 months?

Oh, god. His stupid mullet looked so soft, to the point he really wanted to run his hands through it. 

“Lance?”

His voice was the perfect mix of huskiness and gentleness, and the way his shiny lips moved over his name…

Woah.

W o a h.

Nope. 

Nope, nope, nope. 

He was not thinking this about Keith in this way. His rival. Nu-uh. Nope. 

But, oh god, were his eyes /purple/?

“Lance, are you okay?”

He finally registered the question, but all he could let out was a high pitched squeak.

“I-I, I’m fine! It’s just hot in here! Y-Yeah!”

“Are you sure? You look pretty red. D’ya want me to get Dr. Bailey?”

Since when had the angry and irritating boy who only gave him snappy answers turned into this concerned and pretty one?

“N-No! I’m fine! Let’s continue!” He grabbed the potato and quickly cut out four slices, this time with no complaints as he began to fill the four test tubes with different saturations of sugar water, giving Lance the occasional glance Lance himself certainly noticed.

It would take a lot more than a test of osmosis in potatoes to distract him from what seemed to be his newfound crush.

Oh, god, he was fucked.  
\-------------  
“How did Biology go?” Pidge inquired at lunch, slouching back in her chair.

“Um, it was fine.” Was what Lance found himself saying in response.

Hunk raised an eyebrow. “’Fine’? You were very hung up about him earlier? Why can you only say ‘fine’ now?”

Pidge also seemed interested in what his answer would be, and now Lance had two interested and insisting expressions in his face.

“I was paired with him for that Osmosis experiment thing,” He admitted, biting into his sandwich to avoid talking longer.

Hunk perked up at this. “What happened? Is he dead?”

Pidge snorted, but also looked up questioningly.

“Nah. He was actually alright. And nice? Yeah.”

“Really? Details!” Hunk demanded.

“Dr. Bailey paired us together, and we were fighting over the knife, but he accidently knocked over a beaker and it broke all over the floor.”

“Oh, dude, Dr. Bailey must’ve been mad.” Pidge nodded in agreement with Hunk’s words, looking nervous for Lance’s sake.

“That’s the weird thing; she wasn’t. She saw Keith and got really nice? It was really scary to be honest. She said she knew what’d happened and that she’s let him off.”

“What? That’s strange,” Hunk muttered, both shocked and confused. “What happened to Keith, then?”

“Interesting,” Pidge muttered, grabbing a notepad and a pencil, flipping to a full double page.

“I know, right,” Lance agreed, finishing his sandwich before remembering an important detail he’d left out.

“Oh, yeah!” He practically shouted, “Keith’s brother is Takashi Shirogane!”

Both of his friend’s heads snapped to him in shock instantly.

“What?!” Was the united response. 

Lance smirked, feeling proud he was able to provoke such a reaction in his friends, even if it was down to Keith.

He decided he didn’t really mind that anymore.  
In fact, he quite liked it.

He smiled to himself as he began to answer his friend’s barrage of questions.

He couldn’t wait for French.  
\-------------  
Keith bit the inside of his cheek. His first day back was going okay, despite a few moments of embarrassment, especially knowing the teacher knew what’d happened to him.

Oh, and Lance, of course.

The boy was infuriating. But attractive. Ugh, what was going on? He turned his attention to the lunch Shiro had carefully packed for him that morning, smile on his face.  
He really wasn’t hungry (he never really was anymore) but after seeing how much effort he had put into making it, he forced himself to eat a sandwich. It was good, but he could only manage one half before sighing and whishing Shiro had made him less.

Speaking of Shiro…

[Keith]: Hi  
[Shiro]: Keith! Hi! How’re you doing?  
[Keith]: It’s fine, the teachers have been good and no one’s really bothering me  
[Shiro]: That’s good! What lessons did you have? Anything interesting happen?  
[Keith]: Well, in Biology I accidentally broke a beaker  
[Shiro]: Are you okay?  
[Keith]: Yup. And Dr. Bailey wasn’t even mad.  
[Shiro]: That’s good, for her and you  
[Keith]: We’re you implying you were going to do something to my Biology teacher  
[Shiro]: Mayyybe…  
[Keith]: Please don’t harass my school teachers  
[Shiro]: Only if they give me a reason to  
[Keith]: Aw you care about me  
[Shiro]: Of course I do  
[Keith]: <3  
[Shiro]: <3  
[Keith]: I’ll text you later, best bro  
[Shiro]: Have a good time! I’ll see you after school  
[Keith]: You too, Shiro. See you later  
[Shiro]: See you!

Keith pocked his phone and took another bite of the sandwich to appease his brother, then sat back in his chair, surveying the room critically.

He was sitting alone at a table in a corner, with a perfect view of the room. Most people he could just glance over, but then his eyes landed on the table Lance was sitting on.

He was chatting to his two friends, the larger boy who he thinks is called Hunk, and the smaller girl, Katie. Or Pidge, as Shiro’s friend Matt Holt said she liked to be called. She was his sister, right? She seemed alright.  
And then there was Lance himself, who was talking to the pair animatedly, laughing in a way that made Keith’s heart speed up rapidly and face flush slightly.

God, his crush on the Cuban boy hadn’t lessened over his time off. In fact, it seemed to have gotten worse. /Absence makes the heart fonder/ an informative voice in the back of his head informed him.

He wasn’t very good at dealing with it, anyway. In fact, he was pretty sure Lance hated him, and after how he’d acted towards him, he wasn’t that surprised. 

He always became flustered or confused whenever he saw the boy, so instead of coming off as cool and definitely boyfriend-type, he came off as the opposite.

And since after that Lance never really paid attention to him unless Keith provoked him, which led Keith into a vicious cycle of getting attention from his crush, but always feeling bad about himself afterwards. 

Why couldn’t he just act like a normal person?

Because Lance wasn’t an ordinary crush, he answered his own question.

He hadn’t noticed an impending figure step closer to his table until it sat next to him, coughing.

“How’s it goin’?” The voice sneered, causing Keith to jump in surprise. He turned to recognise who the person next to him was.

“Sendek,” He greeted, trying to swallow his nervousness. He could deal with Sendek. He’d done so before. He was just an asshole who ran away after being threatened.

“Why’d ya go off for 2 months?” He questioned, leaning in closer, hideous smell of his breath in his face, causing Keith’s stomach to churn.

“Scared of me?” He taunted, teeth bared in a mixture of a grin and a grimace. Keith was far too proud to say ‘Yes’.

“No, asshole,” He instead responded, unsure on whether that was the wise thing to say. 

It seemed not to be, as Sendek’s face contorted into a snarl, grabbing his wrists and pinning them to the table, gripping them tightly.

“Listen here, you fucking faggot, you’ve been away for 2 months, you have no right to talk to me like that. You’re fucking nothing, just another manslut who thinks he’s soo special. You’re fucking not. You’re nothing.”

Trying to ignore the memories that were threatening to resurface he glared back.

“/You/ have no right. You think I was off for months because of you? Don’t be so conceited. The world doesn’t revolve around you, and I certainly don’t. Leave me alone.”

He tried to pull away his wrists from the grip, but it tightened drastically, almost cutting off his pulse. He felt panic rise up in him. No. 

“You are nothing,” An angered Sendak hissed in his direction. “I bet you took months off so you could just get fucked by some guys, right? Didn’t want to go to school, you couldn’t fuck there, am I right?”

Keith’s heart rate increased rapidly, struggling growing increasingly more panicked. “No! That’s not true!” He snarled, swallowing deeply. 

“I bet you begged for them, like the fucking faggot slut you are. You came back because they grew sick of you, right? No one could like a slut like you, after all,” He spat, not really considering his words any more, spitting out whatever was at the top of his mind, angered.

Keith, on the other hand, had stilled, memories triggered by the words.

-"You fucking slut. Mmm, you’re so good. I bet you like it. You’ve been wanting this to happen, right? You’re begging to be used. Ah~ So warm! You’re a virgin, right? You’re so tight! But you’re moaning like a whore. That’s what you really are, isn’t it? /A. Fucking. Whore./"-

“-eith? Keith?! Buddy, can you hear me?”

He could barely focus, and he was trembling and so, so scared. It felt so wrong but he wouldn’t stop, no matter how much Keith begged and screamed. He wouldn’t stop! It was wrong- make it stop make /itstop makeitstopmakeitstop/!

“-he fuck, man?! Keith, can you hear me? What’s the matter? Are you okay? Hunk, help me out, buddy, he’s not responding. Keith?”

-“Aah~! Man, that was great.” He grunted, and Keith felt empty again, but so dirty. “She’ll be a catch. We’ll get a lot of money for this slut. Hey, you wanna have a go? She’s nice and tight.” Keith registered a brief shuffle of movement, before cold hands gripped his shoulders, causing him to flinch and struggle in a wild panic. “Here, take this,” and then his hands were being tied together with rope, and he couldn’t move and he couldn’t do anything as it happened again and all he could do was sob and choke and try to break free even though he was being pressed against the wall of the van, legs spread wide.-

“Keith, shh, it’s me, it’s Shiro, okay? You’re okay. You’re not there, you’re fine. Hey, c’mon. Shh, Can you see me? Can you see me, Keith?”

-“Look at me. I want to see your pretty face while I’m fucking you. Ooh, yeah, just like that. Just. Like. That.”-

“Is he okay? What’s going on?”

“I- he’s just- Keith, Keith, breathe. Can you hear me? Please, Keith. Say something, please. Can you hear me? You’re okay, Keith. You’re okay.”

Keith sobbed into Shiro’s shoulder, gripping him tightly in a hug.

“S-Shiro?”

“Yes! Yes, it’s me. Good, good.” Shiro kissed his forehead. “You’re having a panic attack, Keith. I need you to focus on your breathing, okay? Just focus. That’s it. Breathe in, and out. Well done, Keith, well done. In. Out.”

Keith closed his eyes and focused on his brother’s words. In. Out. In. Out.

“Good, well done, Keith. In. Out.” There was another kiss pressed to his forehead and his hair was pushed away softly. 

“In and out,” Keith whispered, breath hitching, clinging to Shiro like a teddy bear. 

“Well done, well done. Do you think you can look up for me, Keith? Do you think you can?”

Keith gave a small hesitant nod, still trembling and sweating, but wanting to please Shiro. He squinted against the bright colours and gripped Shiro even tighter. If he was hurting Shiro, Shiro wasn’t saying anything.

Shiro gently stroked his cheek in a comforting manner, gazing up at Keith with concerned eyes which almost caused Keith to sob again. 

“Do you think you can tell me 5 things you see? D’you think you can?” Shiro asked softly. 

“I-I, y-yeah,” Keith stuttered, trying to focus properly. He could do it. He wasn’t back there, he was here, with Shiro. He was fine. He could do this. 

-“Fu-cking. Whore.”-

He flinched gasping and choking on his breath. 

“Hey, hey. Shh. You’re okay, Keith. In and out. In and out.”

In. And. Out.

“I can see my hands,” He said, trying to focus on everything beyond himself. 

"Yes, Keith, good job. 4 more? Can you try?”

“Y-yeah. Yeah.” He took in a deep breath and lifted his head, voice hitching. 

“I-I- the wall, it’s blue. Blue wall.”

“Good, well done. 3 more.”

He closed his eyes before opening them. Were there people standing there? Ignore them. They weren’t anything to do with him. Ignore them.

-“You’ve taken three of us! You’re such a slut, isn’t that right? A good-for-nothing whore!”-

/Stop it/. They weren’t here. But who was? He focused on the furniture instead. That was easier. 

“Brown table. There’s a brown table.”

“Very good, Keith.” The hand in his hair felt comforting and soft. He liked it.

“2?”

“You,” He said, not wanting to look at the others yet. He hated being seen as vulnerable by others. 

Shiro chuckled, kissing his forehead yet again.

“Yeah. I’m here. One more?”

“Mm,” He mumbled, head back in Shiro’s shoulder in protest.

“C’mon, Keith. Just one.”

He relented at Shiro’s insisting tone and finally focused properly. Oh, god. Was that Lance? He really didn’t want his crush to see him like this. Oh, god.

“Lance. Sanchez. He’s over there.”

Shiro made a slightly surprised noise and turned slightly to see, and sure enough Lance was awkwardly standing next to Hunk and Pidge, looking unsure on how to react to the situation.

“Yeah. He is. Do you feel better now? It’s okay to say no.”

“A-a bit. Can I go home? I don’t wanna stay here anymore.”

“Of course! Don’t worry about it. Of course we can go home. Of course you can. Do you think you can wait here for just a minute while I talk to the principle? I’ll be back soon, and then we can go home, yeah?”

Keith gave a small nod of the head, feeling empty when Shiro slowly released him, patting his shoulder gently before disappearing into the door next to him.

And then Keith was alone with Lance and Hunk after just having had a panic attack. Brilliant. Maybe if he didn’t speak or acknowledge their presence they would just leave?

No such luck.

“Are you… okay?” Lance hesitantly asked him, fiddling with his hands.

Keith didn’t answer, instead choosing to draw his knees into his body, burying his head into them, heart still pounding fast.

“Uh, sorry, I guess. For, uh- sorry.” He made an awkward squeaking noise. “I hope you feel better!” He said in quick succession before Keith heard the sound of a door opening and closing.

“Yeah. What he said. Get better soon, Keith.” Hunk’s voice sounded, followed by a, “Ditto, buddy,” from Pidge, before the sound of the door was heard again, leaving Keith alone.

And then Shiro was back, kind and welcoming smile on his face and if Keith started crying again in the car on the way back nobody needed to know.

\--------------  
Where was Keith? 

Also, why was he thinking about that?

Lance sunk into his seat with a sigh. Great. Now he was worried about where he sat?

He still glanced around the room, though, before spotting Keith glaring at Sendek, one of the annoying jock guys who thinks he’s the shit. Ugh.

He seemed to have a weird obsession with Keith, though, so it wasn’t really a surprise to see him confronting him.

There was more glares exchanged, making Lance chuckle, before Sendek pinned Keith’s wrists to the table.

Usually he’d be unworried as Keith could more than Sendek on the average day, but he seemed a bit out of it. Especially with the look of panic that flashed across his face. 

Lance felt a scowl twist his features, ready to intervene if he needed to. Sendek seemed angered and the grip on Keith’s wrists didn’t look good at all. 

Keith was struggling against them before Sendek said something that caused him to just. Stop.

His eyes glazed over and his body went slack, and then he began to tremble, struggling with renewed rigour. Sendek seemed to find this amusing, sneering and twisting his wrist around. 

Lance snapped. He could recognise a panic attack, and he was not about to let a prick like Sendek take advantage of that. 

He quickly made his way to the table, shoving Sendek onto the floor, only managing to do so because he caught him by surprise. 

“Keith?” He found himself shouting, while Hunk and Pidge caught up with him, seemingly understanding the situation. 

He didn’t respond.

“Keith? Keith?! Buddy, can you hear me?”

He turned around at the sound of a screeching chair. Hunk was angrily staring down Sendek, who had just shoved a chair out of the way, utterly pissed off.

Hunk grabbed his arm. “Stop,” He commanded in a cold, commanding voice that sent chills down Lance’s spine. He’d rarely head his friend like that before. 

Sendek hesitated for a second, which was enough time for Pidge to hit him over the head with her schoolbag.  
He fell to the floor, dazed. Pidge’s backpack was pretty heavy, considering the tech that she kept there.

Sendek tried to grab Lance’s leg, making him scowl.  
“What the fuck, man!?” He said, kicking it away, also emphasising that that sentence also applied to his actions to Keith, before turning back to Keith himself.

“Keith, can you hear me? What’s the matter? Are you okay? Hunk, help me out, buddy, he’s not responding. Keith?”

Hunk grabbed Keith in his arms, and began to carry him to the medical office, Pidge and Lance following, not before glaring at Sendek moaning on the floor about his head.

Before long he was standing behind one of his biggest idols, hardly able to believe he was there. But now was not the time to ask for an autograph.

“Keith, shh, it’s me, it’s Shiro, okay? You’re okay. You’re not there, you’re fine. Hey, c’mon. Shh, Can you see me? Can you see me, Keith?”

Watching Takashi Shirogane interact with his brother so well made Lance’s admiration for him increase yet again.

“Is he okay? What’s going on?” Hunk asked in concern.

“I- he’s just- Keith, Keith, breathe. Can you hear me? Please, Keith. Say something, please. Can you hear me? You’re okay, Keith. You’re okay.”

Lance watched on, feeling like an imposter, as his idol helped calm down his rival step-by-step.

And then Shirogane was gone and Lance felt more awkward than ever.

Keith was hunched over, head buried in his legs, and Lance couldn’t just leave without saying anything.

“Are you… okay?” Lance found himself asking, fiddling with his hands like he always did when he was nervous.

Keith was silent, and, god, had Lance messed up somehow?

“Uh, sorry, I guess. For, uh- sorry.” He found himself adding, a squeaking noise escaping him, causing him to curse himself. 

“I hope you feel better!” He finished with, before dashing out of the room, Hunk and Pidge following not long afterwards.

Oh, god.

“I take it you believe me saying that he didn’t just take an impromptu 2 months’ vacation,” Pidge said, probably meant to cheer them up, but they all just felt solemn.

“We should probably get to class,” Hunk said after a short silence.

“Yeah.

“Mm-hm. Yup.”

“I-“

“I know.”

There was some sort of agreement that passed through the trio. 

Keith was one of theirs now.

And they protected their friends.

“When he’s next in school, we’re getting his number.”  
Lance decided, nods of agreement given in response straight away.

But Lance just wondered why they hadn’t done this sooner.

Why it had taken a fucking /panic attack/ for him to get his shit together.

He’d just have to make Keith would feel like he’d always been there. 

Because he was a decent human being.

(And not just because he knew he was guilty and definitely wanted to make things right between the pair of them.)

(And not just because he’d realised a few things in the time Keith had been gone, and since come back.)

Because he was a decent person. 

And decent people did decent things, and decent people help other people out, no matter who they were.

Because maybe he wanted to prove to himself that he actually was a decent person. 

And as he walked down the hall, Pidge and Hunk on opposite sides, he knew they’d make it work. 

Because one decent person was one thing, but three decent people-

Well.

Three decent people may actually just be able to make a difference. 

And Lance felt his frown slip into a determined smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not written anything on this story for a very long time. I offer my apologies. I recently have had exams and I am an incredibly bad procrastinator. I had about half of this written for like 5 months and then the new season came out so I changed a few things. There’s probably loads of mistakes and was transferred from google docs which doesn’t tend to work that well and it’s quite rushed towards the end so please call me out on anything! I don’t have a beta reader either haha,, But I met Matt and fell in love instantly so I had to include him. I didn’t want to change Shallura and I like both Shiro/Matt and Matt/Allura so why not all 3? So this basically turned into Pidge background story. I hope you don’t mind! The next chapter should (hopefully) not be as long to update but I can’t promise it will be soon as I’m quite a busy person but I hope you can all bear with me haha. Hope you enjoy!

Keith’s brows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and annoyance as he felt a piece of paper hit the back of his head. He turned to see Lance grinning widely at him, gesturing to the paper that was now lying crumpled up on the floor.

He picked it up cautiously, and turned back to the front of the class where the teacher was droning on in French. He unfolded it and flattened it out on the desk.

Then he read it.

(XXX) XXX-XXXX – Text me ;D

He immediately felt blood rush to his face, and turned back to Lance who was watching him smugly. He bit the inside of his cheek before hesitantly turning back around.

Text me.

What was that supposed to mean?! This was his first interaction with Lance since he had witnessed his panic attack, and Keith had absolutely no idea how to take it.

“Monsieur Kogane, j’espère que vous sachiez la réponse?”

Keith looked up at his teacher’s voice, startled. He registered the question, but then just gazed at the teacher helplessly, unable to answer as he had not heard the question he was supposed to answer.

“Je ne sais pas,” He forced himself to say, wincing when the teacher sighed, switching back to English to reprimand him.

“Keith, make sure you pay attention. Although I know it's not your fault you were off, and I am sorry that you were, but you were off, and you’ve got quite a lot to catch up on, so it would be beneficial for you to pay attention. Do you understand?”

“Oui, Monsieur Cartier,” Keith muttered, flushed and burning holes into his desk.

His teacher sighed again before going back to talking about the conjugations of irregular perfect tense verbs. Keith picked up his pen and began to note down what was now being written on the board.

The crumpled piece of paper begged to be noticed, to distract him, so he shoved it in his pocket. It would be forgotten if he kept it out of his sight. At least for now.

Or rather, at least that’s what he’d keep telling himself.  
\-----------------------  
“You just threw a piece of paper at him?!” Pidge hissed incredulously at lunch, “You didn’t like, I don’t know, talk to him?”

Lance shrugged. “Hey, it was fine. I only got him into trouble a little bit.”

“What do you mean ‘Only a little bit’?!”

Hunk’s voice suddenly broke through the pair’s conversation, amused. 

“Hey, calm down, guys, I don’t want any murders to deal with, I have life plans that don’t involve being mentally traumatised by the death of one of my best friends.”

“Hunk! Hi!” Lance exclaimed, immediately launching at his friend.

“Did I ever mention how much I love you, bro? You’re my bestest friend I couldn’t live without you, bro.”

Hunk smiled knowingly. “Uh-huh. Sure, Lance. You’re my bestest bro, too.”

Pidge scowled with a hint of a smile. “Suck up,” She muttered, before addressing Hunk.

“He threw a piece of paper at Keith in French that had his number on.”

“What? Really?” Hunk sighed and turned to face Lance at his side, who was sending intense puppy dog eyes in his direction.

“Maybe….?”

“Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work,” Pidge relented, already knowing there was no way to change it now. The eyes had nothing to do with it. At all.

Lance released Hunk and grinned at the pair.

“It will work!” He exclaimed confidently. “I’m just too awesome, he won’t be able to resist.”

Hunk chuckled and sat next to Pidge, who had begun to relax about the situation slightly.

“Especially with the message I wrote.” Lance winked, laughing boisterously when Pidge’s eyes shot up to glare incredulously at him.

“What message?!”

Lance couldn’t stop laughing, even after Pidge’s gaze turned murderous, pleads from Hunk completely being disregarded. He knew he’d taken a risk. But the look on Keith’s face had been worth everything, and if he was able to become friends with the boy, he’d totally rub the entire situation in Pidge’s face.  
\------------------  
Keith stared at the number scrawled on the paper in a sparkling blue gel pen with a focus reserved for few things, almost unblinking, drinking in those numbers and letters like he’d never seen them before.

Text me ;D.  
Text me.  
Text.  
Me.

Keith let out a frustrated groan and threw the page to the other side of his bed, burying his face into his pillow.

Should he text Lance? What did that face even mean? Was Lance teasing him? Was it all some joke? Especially after the panic attack yesterday. What if it was just Lance trying to rub it in his face?

But, no. He didn’t think Lance was like that at all. He knew what his crush was like. He was kind and thoughtful and he smiled so brightly that he lit up the entire room and when he laughed Keith couldn’t help but wish he could listen to that sound forever and Keith decided to stop thinking down the same thought process because, hey, that sounded pretty gay, and he wasn’t even sure if Lance was even into guys, let alone if he was flirting with him by giving him his phone number.

He peeked over the edge of the pillow to see the blue lettering almost taunting him.

Text me.  
;D

Was that even a wink face? Maybe it was just a smile and the ink had smudged and Keith was overthinking things as usual and interpreting everything wrong because God knows that’s what he does best yet it didn’t look like a smudge but rather a certain line drawn with a comma in mind.

“Are you okay in there?” his brother’s amused voice flooded in from where he was standing at his door. “I heard some frustrated noises.”

Keith glanced up helplessly, trying to convey his problems entirely through eye contact, without saying anything.

“Sorry, bro, can’t hear you there. Can you maybe speak up a bit?” Shiro teased.

Keith almost threw the pillow at him. Shiro seemed to guess that was his intention by laughing lightly and coming to sit at his side.

“What’s up? You don’t make these noises on a regular basis with no reason. Unless I’m missing something.”

Shiro winked and Keith hit him with his pillow in place of throwing it, smile on his lips.

“It’s just… stupid.” He admitted, fist clenched into the fabric of his bed’s duvet.

“C’mon, bro. Nothing you say is gonna sound stupid to me. Unless you tell me you’re actually an alien who’s been disguising as a human your whole life.”

Keith shrugged. “You’ve got me. You’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m an alien,” he said, voice completely steady and face serious.

The pair looked at each other’s faces momentarily before bursting out in laughter, Keith’s more like giggles which subsided into a snort and then stopping with a grin.

Shiro smiled happily, drawing his brother into a hug.

“But, really, what is it?” He asked again when they had broken apart.

Keith sighed, but relented, leaning over to the other side of his bed to grab the scrap of paper, showing it to Shiro.

Shiro raised an eyebrow before handing it back to his brother who was flushed a light pink.

“Someone gave you their number?”

“Y-yes. Well, I mean- yeah. Lance. Sanchez. His number.”

The eyebrow went higher. “The boy from yesterday?”

“W-Well, yeah. Him.”

“And you’re frustrated because you don’t know whether to text him or not?”

“Don’t say it like that!” Keith protested, now bright red.

“Well, it does seem rather silly. You’d just text him, right? Unless, of course, someone has a crush.”

He was assaulted with the pillow again, and ended up laughing at the obvious confirmation of his statement.

“My advice would be just to say ‘hi’ and see how it goes. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Keith groaned yet again, this time into Shiro’s shoulder. He lifted his head up slightly to respond.

“Of course you’d say that! You and Allura started dating like two days after you met! And don't even get me started on Matt!”

“Hey, it was longer than that! But anyway, I think I should leave you and your love life to it,” he winked here, chuckling at the expression on Keith’s face, “Call me if you need anything, I’m making lasagne in the kitchen.”

“Mm-hm,” Keith mumbled, already back to staring at the glittery blue lettering in a contemplative manner.

Eventually he picked up his phone, unlocking it. And then he looked back at the number written on the paper. And then back at his phone.

Text me.  
;D

He bit his lip.

And then slowly entered the number into his phone.  
\-----------------------------  
[Unknown Number] Hi  
[Unknown Number] Um, this is Keith  
[Unknown Number] You gave me this number in French  
[Unknown Number] I think, anyway  
[Unknown Number] I’m pretty sure it was meant for me?  
[Keith] So, yeah, hi  
[You] hi! yeah it was meant for you  
[You] i just wanted to make friends  
[You] is that okay?  
[You] you don’t have to if you don’t want to  
[You] but it’d be cool if you did  
[You] hello?  
[You] are u there?  
[You] that’s fine, don’t worry about it

Lance sighed and shut off his phone, leaning back against his pillow, trying not to feel disappointed. Oh, well. It had been worth a shot. He turned his attention instead to his Chemistry textbook, as much as he would rather not. But he had a test in a week and he found atomic structure definitely grated on his nerves, especially since he slept through about 90% of his Chemistry lessons anyway.

He tried to focus on the words, but to no avail. He could feel his eyes watering, so began to scold himself. He had known before he had even given Keith his number that it was likely Keith would not respond, so there was no point getting upset about it. Not at all.

Giant. Structural. Lattices.

What did that mean again?

Buzz.

Lance glanced at his phone, expecting it to be lit up with a text from Pidge or Hunk, most likely inquiring about his success with Keith. Which was non-existent.

But instead the name listed on the screen was Keith.

He scrambled to his phone, immediately clicking on his messaging app and reading the message,

[Keith] Sorry! I had to go and have dinner with Shiro. He tried to make lasagne with mixed results.  
[Keith] But, anyway, I’d love to be your friend!  
[Keith] Does that mean I can sit at your table? Shiro’s been bugging me not to sit by myself anymore and I’d love to get him off my back.

Lance grinned widely. Never mind! He began to text back immediately.

[You] of course you can!  
[You] as long as you’re willing to put up with pidge and hunk  
[You] hunks not so bad but pidge is a little gremlin believe me

It was a few minutes before his phone screen lit up with a reply, which he read eagerly.

[Keith] Well I’d be happy with any friends, and I kinda know Pidge already sort of. She seems alright?  
[You] wait really??? :00 when have you met her before?? school??  
[You] oh and yea she puts on some sort of mask for other ppl to trick them into thinking shes innocent but dont be fooled!!  
[Keith] Well one of Shiro’s best friends is her brother. Matt Holt, do you know him? But yeah uh I see Matt a lot so I’ve seen Pidge too as well as a result I guess.  
[Keith] We talked a while ago when all that stuff with Shiro and Matt and her dad happened.  
[You] wait hold on hold on  
[You] WHAT  
[You] i had no idea pidge had a brother whats happening  
[Keith] ?  
[Keith] Um, yea? Matt’s always on about her.  
[You] WHAT  
[You] okay okay so wait pidge has a brother called matt  
[You] Holt??? Matt holt???  
[Keith] Well yeah Holt’s their last name.  
[You] I THOUGHT HER LAST NAME WAS GUNDERSON  
[You] oh my god what  
[Keith] I take it Pidge must have been keeping some secrets from you?  
[You] THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT  
[You] i hope you dont mind but i am going to talk to her about this >:000  
[Keith] That’s fine, Shiro’s calling me again anyway, but can you maybe not mention me? I’m not sure if I was supposed to have said that. I think maybe she kept it secret for a reason and now I feel kind of bad for telling you.  
[You] ya ok thats fine!!!!  
[You] it was nice speaking to you anyway! make sure you sit with us tomorrow k?  
[Keith] Thanks, Lance.  
[You] hey np np! ttyl??  
[Keith] Uh, what’s ttyl?  
[You] omg thats so cute  
[You] it means talk to you later  
[You] basically i was asking if u wanted 2 text later

There was a momentary break in texting as Lance started, face red, at his texts. Had he really just called Keith Kogane ‘cute’? Jesus, his second nature flirting was becoming a problem, something he thought he’d never end up admitting. Hopefully he had played it off well? He’d called Hunk and Pidge cute dozens of times; it wasn’t that bad, right?

It had been several minutes since Lance had sent the last message. He stared at his phone screen anxiously waiting for a reply. When it eventually vibrated in his hand he quickly scanned the new message, relieved, letting out a soft chuckle.

[Keith] Sure! If you want to that would be cool.  
[Keith] Um so yeah? Okay, ttyl?  
[You] ttyl!

Smiling at himself, he focused on the new task at hand; whatever the hell was up with Pidge.

[You] PIDGE GET UR ASS HERE RIGHT NOW  
[pidge-on] jeez lance there's something called being polite  
[You] ha ha like u dont address me like that u midget  
[pidge-on] point taken. still dont agree with the way u adressed me. displeased by the use of ‘midget’ but please, do continue  
[pidge-on] how was ur master plan of throwing a piece of paper at keith  
[pidge-on] bc im sure it went fabulously  
[You] actually it did u heathen  
[You] we were just texting SO  
[pidge-on] dont believe u am in need of proof  
[You] *Attached 1 Image- Screenshot(3128)*  
[You] *Attached 1 Image- Screenshot(3129)*  
[pidge-on] well  
[pidge-on] i cant deny what is shown before me but i can express my deepest disbelief  
[pidge-on] how the fuck  
[You] its my cuban charm  
[pidge-on] oh ya how didnt i guess that  
[pidge-on] ur cuban charm  
[pidge-on] u cant c me but im laughing  
[pidge-on] smh  
[You] dont believe u am in need of proof  
[pidge-on] s m h  
[pidge-on] *Attached 1 image- Camera(1281)*  
[You] i cant deny what is shown before me but i can express my deepest disbelief  
[pidge-on] s m h  
[You] anyway p i d ge  
[You] k a t ie  
[You] one of my c l o s e s t friends  
[pidge-on] should i be concerned? what do u want from me lancey lance  
[pidge-on] u never call me katie  
[You] g u n d e r s o n  
[pidge-on] ya what is it  
[You] or should i even c a l l you that  
[pidge-on] ??? u ok???  
[You] hows ur dear old brother matt?  
[pidge-on] What.  
[pidge-on] lance what the fuck  
[pidge-on] seriously what the Fuck  
[pidge-on] Lance what how did you  
[pidge-on] lance serfoisly WHat the fucvk  
[You] why did u never tell me u had a brother??????????????????????  
[pidge-on] LANCE HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET THIS INFORMATION

*[pidge-on] began calling [You]*

Smirking, Lance accepted the call and waited for Pidge to speak. He didn’t have to wait long before Pidge began yelling through the phone.

“Lance! Explain yourself! How the hell do you know about Matt?!”

“Hey, hey, if anything you should be the one explaining! How come you never told me you had a brother?! And that apparently your last name is Holt and not Gunderson! Why didn’t you tell me anything?” he responded defensively.

There was a silence from the other end of the phone for a few seconds, almost making Lance speak again out of concern, before Pidge spoke again, softly, a contrast to her previous tone.

“I-Okay. I’m called Katie Holt. As I guess you know now. It’s-it’s, uh. A long story.” She sounded dejected, immediately making Lance feel bad.

“Hey, it’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it- sorry. I guess I kind of invaded your privacy. Sorry.”

“Nonono- it’s okay,” Pidge quickly responded, before sighing to herself. “I guess I should have said by now, it’s just-” she cut herself off and the line was silent for a few moments before she began to speak again.

“My brother went here a while ago, and when he was in the top year, he- uh. Well, my dad worked here, too. Samuel Holt. He and Matt and Shiro went on a school funded trip to do with their course. It was just them, but when they left there was an… “accident” I guess,” she muttered this last part bitterly and silence once again overcame the line. Lance was about to speak when she continued, this time determined.

“The school said there was some sort of mistake with the driving, that Shiro had crashed the car because he was drunk or something.”

Lance felts a sinking feeling in his gut. He’d always kind of wondered where Shiro’s scar had come from, why he had a prosthetic arm, and now he realised he was probably finding out.

“I knew Shiro. He was not the type to even drink at all, let alone when driving Matt and my dad on a school funded trip. No way. My mum and I asked about the car and everything, but the school just directed us to Iverson,” She practically hissed the name, “Who was vague and didn’t tell us anything. The police just dismissed it as the usual drunk driver case but we never even got to see bodies or anything.

“I knew he was covering up something, none of it added up. I didn’t, uh, go here then. I kept breaking in to see if I could find anything in Iverson’s office. He clearly was acting suspicious.”

At this Lance let out a fond incredulous laugh, “Wow, why am I not surprised? You broke into a school you didn’t even go to?”

“Ha, yeah, I guess I did,” She replied, almost smugly. Lance was pleased he managed to make the mood slightly lighter, yet he still felt tense about what he was being told.

“But, uh, I got caught and obviously that was taken well. I was kinda banned from attending this school? They had a few ‘stern’ conversations with my mum, but there was no way I wasn’t going here. To find out about Matt and dad and Shiro, obviously, but also because this school is one of the best around.”

Lance seemed to suddenly realise something, “Wait, hold on, are you telling me not only you knew Shiro, but you knew he was Keith’s brother! You pretended that you didn't!” he whined, and then seemed to realise yet another fact Pidge’s explanation had implied, “Wait! Shiro went here?! To the same school as we go to?!”

“Yeah, I thought you knew?”

“No! No, I didn’t know! Oh my god. Oh my god.”

Pidge laughed lightly from her side, causing Lance to smile softly.

“Anyway, uh, you wanna continue? If you want to, I mean, I don’t want to interrupt you,”

“Oh, yeah, uh, it actually feels quite good to tell someone else. Thanks for listening, I guess. So, uh, well-

“I decided that since I couldn’t join the school as Katie Holt, why not join the school as Pidge Gunderson, instead? So I cut my hair, donned Matt’s glasses and signed up as a member of the male gender, as I am sure you know.”

“I was always unconvinced by your ‘Oh they must have mixed up my gender when I signed up’. That was such bullshit,”

“Yet you still believed it. And so did the school.”

“Touché, Pidge, touché,”

“So yeah, I kept sneakily spying on Iverson, etc., until I found out his school login username one time I was in his office, and as you know, we have home access to the school system, so all I had to do was use his account number and figure out his password, which wasn’t too hard, and from that it was hellishly easy to find out his password and account numbers for everything else on his computer storage so, uh, ‘Boom!’ I was, hacker voice, in,”

Lance let out a stunned chuckle, “Hold on, you guessed his password? What was it? ‘Is’ it? I can’t believe the extent of your lawbreaking here Pidge,”

“I’m afraid I am not going to disclose that information to you,” she said, amusement clear in her voice, “And, uh, not to the extent of Iverson’s law breaking, believe me,”

“Okay, now you’ve hooked me. Please, do go on. I can’t believe you’re the reason Iverson left. If I had known I would have praised you so much more, let me tell you that,”

“Ha, well, he didn’t just leave. I mean, it wasn’t his choice,”

“Please, do go on,”

“Okay, okay. So, you’ve heard of the Galra, right?”

“Uh, yeah, obviously. That group of mafia gang weirdos. The police No.1 public enemy? You’re asking me if I’ve heard of them?!”

“Jeez, it was a joke. Anyway, turns out Iverson had some business with the Galra at one point, I’m not sure about the specifics, but they were demanding some sort of repayment for something, and he had no way to repay it, especially considering his financial situation, blah blah blah, whatever. He got desperate and well-” She practically snarled here, emotion overcoming her words.

“Why not offer two of the best students from the Garrison, right? And wohoo! A bonus one!”

Lance sat in shock at the revelation, feeling horrible. “P-Pidge- Katie, I’m so sorry- I had no idea-”

She laughed bitterly, tears choking her voice. Lance could almost vividly picture her face.

“I-It’s okay. They’re okay- I just- I hate that it happened. And that no one cared except me and mum and- and Keith. And, oh my god, I hate Iverson. I hate him,”

Lance let out a sound of pity and began to try and comfort his friend, but she interrupted him before he could begin.

“Thank you, Lance, really, but I need to finish this. Please. I-I-”

“Of course, if that’s what you feel like you need to do, please do whatever you need to do. I’ll listen if that’s what you need me to, absolutely, absolutely, whatever you need to do.”

“Thank you. Thanks, Lance, really. I-I’m glad that I have you as a friend.”

Lance felt tears brimming in his eyes as he nodded, aware Pidge couldn’t see him, but doing it more as a reassurance to himself.

“Well-uh-okay. Okay. Basically he- he arranged for them to go on a trip they had been requesting for a while and told the Galra when and where and what and gave Matt and dad and Shiro a specific route and- yeah. They were taken by the Galra as some sort of sick entertainment? They made them fight each other and other people they had… taken. It’s so messed up, Lance. 

“I went to the police, obviously, and they kinda glossed over with my uh, hacking, because of the information I gave them. They tried to arrest Iverson but he figured some things out before they could. That’s why he left school. 

“The police didn’t really want to make anything public, but they kept tracking him, until they found him and Shiro in some Galra hideout. Shiro was- missing an arm. And he was in a really bad shape. I-I-

“Uh, I mean, they arrested him and sent Shiro to hospital. Matt and my dad were still missing so they interrogated Iverson and questioned Shiro when he woke up. Eventually they found a woman who had been a previous captive of the Galra and escaped, and she admitted she knew about Matt.

“She said he was trying to help the others trapped there, and she had helped him, and him her. She described what she could remember of where they had been held and eventually they found a Galra hideout place.

“They got in there and- and they found him. Matt. And- he was okay. Mostly- Shiro had tried to protect him- but oh my god, Lance, I was so glad to see him,” she sobbed as Lance gripped his phone in a white-knuckled grip, face a mixture of shock and horror. 

“P-Pidge, I had no idea,” His voice broke.

“He’s been back for about a year and a half now. They found my dad about 7 months ago. He was better off- apparently they didn't care much for older people, not much of an entertaining fight, huh?”

“So-uh, yeah, my mum asked for everything to be kept private, there was an anonymous mention on the news but otherwise nothing really, which is why you didn’t know. Or anyone else. I-I didn’t really know how to say anything- I- didn’t know how, and I kind of didn’t want to. It’s better now but I- I just really missed them, and I wanted them to be safe but-”

“Pidge, do not feel bad. I am so sorry for pushing- I am so sorry, really, I am. You’re so amazing; I can't believe you managed to do all of that. There was absolutely no obligation for you to tell us, but if you feel better for telling, I am so glad I could help. Pidge, you are amazing. Just think- without you I wouldn’t have Shiro to look up to, and where would I be then?!”

She let out a weak and teary laugh, making Lance feel accomplished. He was glad he could make her feel at least slightly better about the entire situation. 

“Lance. If you really want I can let you meet Shiro properly- It’s what you deserve anyway.” She seemed to be easing into happier conversation slightly, keen to forget her experience.

“I can’t believe you knew him all this time. Wow. You really are on another level. I also can’t believe you went through all that and are still thinking about what I deserve. The first thing I’m gonna do when I see you tomorrow is give you a giant hug. And chocolate. And great juicy gossip.”

“Heh, you give all of them to me anyway,”

“Well- I’ll give you that cactus I was keeping for your birthday! And! I'll give you my excellent company,”

“Again, that was a joke, but thank you. I really appreciate anything you give me, whether it's your ‘cuban charm’ or chocolate, you really don't have to, so yeah. Thanks.”

“Hey, you've said thank you far too many times. It's absolutely no problem, what sort of friend would I be if I didn't do that?”

There was a comfortable silence that settled between the two that was only broken when Pidge spoke up again, smile on her face, clearly trying to move on.

“So, how are you finding the Chemistry homework?”

Lance immediately accepted the change in conversation and let out a low groan.

“I just don’t get it! Physics is so much easier! Like what the hell even is a sea of delocalized electrons?! What does that mean?!” 

Pidge chuckled and shifted her position slightly. “It means not all of the carbon bonds are used up so there are free elections that allow an electrical current to flow through,”

“You don’t have to rub it in,” Lance mumbled half-heartedly, scribbling down her definition, “But you do explain it better than the textbook,”

“Of course I do,” she said smugly.

“Do you happen to know anything about the Plum Pudding model of the atom too?” He asked hopefully. Pidge chuckled before leaning against the wall next to her bed.

“This is going to be a long night,”  
———————————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the great comments and kudos on the first chapter! I really appreciate it, tysm

**Author's Note:**

> Voilá, the end.  
> I hope you enjoyed (if that's the right word) and are willing to read another chapter.  
> Comments make my day and kudos make me happy!   
> I'll see you in the next chapter!  
> Au revoir.


End file.
